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Storm King
The Storm King is the main antagonist of the 2017 animated film My Little Pony: The Movie of the Friendship is Magic series. He is a satyr who was the oppressive ruler of the lands south of Equestria and half of the world. He was also the former master of Tempest Shadow and Grubber. He planned to invade the entire land of Equestria and the whole world with Twilight Sparkle's and other Princess' magic with his Staff of Sacanas to make himself powerful enough to create misery, and cause destruction without anyone to help serve him once he rules the world. He was voiced by Liev Schreiber, who also played Sabretooth/Victor Creed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Stu Wargle in Phantoms, Ray Donovan in the series of the same name, Ted Winter in Salt, and Colonel Alexander Vosch in The 5th Wave, and will later play the main antagonist in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Backstory The Storm King presumably took over many lands beyond Equestria, before learning of Equestria's princesses and their alicorn magic. He destroyed many other kingdoms as well, including Capper's home and the kingdom of the hippogriffs, and enslaved many others, including Captain Celaeno and her crew. At some point, he met up with Grubber from an unknown destination, making him his smallest servant. He also met up with Tempest Shadow and told her that if she helped him steal the alicorn magic, he'd use it to restore her horn. History Role in the Film The Invasion The Storm King's invasion of Equestria begins during Canterlot's Friendship Festival, where Twilight Sparkle and her friends are preparing for a concert. The Storm King's henchmen, Tempest Shadow and Grubber, arrive ahead of him with the intention of capturing the four princesses for his upcoming arrival. During the ensuing chaos, Tempest manages to use obsidian orbs to petrify princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, while Twilight and her friends manage to escape. The Storm King calls Tempest to learn of her progress, during which he assures her that if Twilight is not captured and brought to him within three days, he will not fulfill his promise of restoring her broken horn. Stealing the Magic The Storm King later arrives in Canterlot, with Tempest having fulfilled her promise of successfully delivering the princess Twilight. The Storm King uses the Staff of Sacanas to channel the magic of all four princesses, much to his glee. As he begins experimenting with his new abilities by rapidly accelerating the day and night cycle of the world, Tempest attempts to ask when he will restore her broken horn. The Storm King scoffs and betrays her, telling her that she has outlived her usefulness. He uses the staff to create a massive hurricane that engulfs all of Canterlot, and prepares to kill Tempest, the princesses and a now-powerless Twilight. Final Battle Just as he is about to kill Tempest and Twilight, Twilight's friends, who had successfully infiltrated the heavily-guarded streets of Canterlot, launch themselves out of a massive cannon, ramming the Storm King out of the way and lodging the Staff of Sacanas into the mosiac above the throne room. Twilight and her friends fight against the raging winds of the hurricane and the falling debris of the collapsing throne room in an attempt to retrive the staff. Right behind them, The Storm King emerges from underneath some of the fallen rubble and desperately climbs in pursuit of the staff. He hurls himself at it just as Twilight grabs it, sending Twilight, the staff, and himself through the window and out into the hurricane. Supposed Death Just when the ponies think Twilight is dead, she emerges from the eye of the storm with the staff, still alive, and uses it to end the chaos the Storm King began. As she and her friends embrace each other, the Storm King sneakingly climbs back up over the balcony and hurls an obsidian orb at them in a last attempt to retrieve the staff. Tempest, having had a change of heart after being betrayed, and realizing the Storm King is too dangerous to be kept alive, leaps in front of Twilight and her friends and onto the Storm King, taking the hit and transforming them both into obsidian statues. While Twilight uses the staff to save Tempest, The Storm King's petrified body plummets down to the courtyard below and shatters into pieces, killing him and ending his oppressive tyranny over Equestria before it could truly begin. In the credits, while still in pieces in stone form, his eyes were seen moving before his body was reduced to rubble again. Season 8 In the premiere, "School Daze Part 1", he is mentioned when Twilight says that Tempest left Ponyville to spread word of the Storm King's defeat. He was also mentioned by Sandbar when reminds the creature students that the Mane Six saved Equestria. In the Season 8 episode "Surf and/or Turf", the Storm King is mentioned several times to recount the events of the film and when he attacked the Hippogriff Kingdom during his reign. Role in the Comics The Storm King appears as the main antagonist in IDW's My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel. It depicts what he did during his reign, conquering many lands, including the Abyssinian capital of Panthera. His second-in command at the time was Strife, a cloud creature who secretly planned to betray him and side with the Pirates. In Issue #1, he and Strife invaded Panthera, plundering all the palace treasure and setting fire to the rest of the city. However, Strife later betrays the Storm King and allies with Captain Celaeno and her crew of parrot pirates. The Storm King, enraged by this betrayal, appoints Grubber as his new second-in-command. In Issue #2, the Storm King catches up with Celaeno's ship, tosses Strife overboard for his betrayal, and forces Celaeno and her crew to work for him as cargo haulers. He does not appear in Issue #3, but he was mentioned. In Issue #4, the Storm King tracks down Tempest Shadow, who has been in possession of the Misfortune Malachite while fleeing from his Storm Creatures. The two then form an alliance, with Tempest agreeing to become the Storm King's new lieutenant in his search for magical power in exchange for the Storm King healing her broken horn. The Storm King is also mentioned during the Convocation of Creatures on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #61 page 15. Appearance The Storm King is a satyr with white fur that covers all of his body save for his hooved feet, his hands, and face, which are gray. His eyes, tongue, and horns are blue, and he is clad in a lustrous black armor that covers his torso, forearms, and shins. He also has a long, while tail with bushy hair at the end. Personality The Storm King is described as an unkind, cold-hearted, tyrannical, arrogant, and cruel monster, with a lust for power. His demeanor unpredictably shifts between pleasant and cheerful, sardonic and petulant, and cold and ruthless. He loves creating storms, and attacking and raiding ships and cities. He loves enslaving, abusing, and corrupting anyone he comes across, including his own army, and he hates love, caring, kindness, and overall anything that is cute. He is also very sarcastic, egotistical, petulant, and rude, and he also has a dark sense of humor. In the climax of the film, the king is also shown to be traitorous and dishonest, as he reveals to Tempest Shadow that he never intended to fix her horn. Powers and Abilities The Storm King has a staff called the Staff of Sacanas, which has the ability to channel magic and power from other creatures into itself. It also reveals at the end to fix and create things, like rebuild everything that was destroyed. The staff's fate remained unknown after Canterlot and everything else in Equestria was rebuilt, either it was destroyed or remained in either Canterlot or Ponyville under true care. The Storm King himself is shown to be quite agile and resilient to damage, as he shrugs off being crushed by falling debris and can leap long distances with little effort. Reception The Storm King received mixed reception from critics and the Brony fandom. While Tempest Shadow was praised by critics and the fandom, the Storm King was criticized for his lack of screentime, character development, comedic moments, and would even be called one of the weakest villains in the series since King Sombra. Despite this, there are some fans who did enjoy the character, as well as praise Liev Schreiber's voice acting, and his character‘s role in the comics. Overtime, positive reception towards the character grew, with many even going on to note him alongside other classically evil and humorous villains like Hades, Joker, & Aku. Andrea Libman, who regularly voices Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy for the series, commented on an Equestria Daily interview that the Storm King was her favorite MLP villain. Among other things, Liev Schreiber, along with director Jayson Theissen, the writers, and the animators, went on to comment that bringing the character to life was really fun. These statements, along with denial of his film appearance being his last, has caused many fans to wonder if the Storm King will return, whether physical or non-physical. Quotes Comics and Books Movie Trivia *The Storm King is Schreiber‘s first voice role, and he would later star in two other animated movies the following year: Isle of Dogs, ''and ''Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where he is set to play the main villain. *Liev Schreiber stated in an interview that he accepted the role of the Storm King because he wanted to appear in a film his children could watch, noting their exposure to his violent, adult-oriented films. *Despite being the main antagonist and being responsible for the attacks and the destruction of Equestria, he only gets a short amount of screentime as almost the entire film revolves around Tempest, Grubber, and his army of soldiers. *The ultimate fate of The Storm King is left ambiguous; while he most likely died, during the credits there is a small animation of his shattered body put back together incorrectly, while his eyes are still moving. However, this scene is most likely non-canon as it was done in a more lighthearted style than the rest of the movie, and was most likely done only for comedic effect, plus, characters turned to stone cannot move their eyes, and other elements of the credits suggest they are not meant to be taken seriously. **The original draft for the credits depicted his eyes as still being turned to stone, but this was changed in the final draft. Since they didn't make this change to the actual scene where he turns to stone and shatters, this further supports that the credits are non-canon and that he is dead. It is likely the credits scene was only changed to avoid showing the Storm Creature defiling his corpse. **When Tempest restores Canterlot with the staff, the spot where the Storm King fell and shattered is shown, but his pieces have vanished, implying that either the power of the staff destroyed his remains or that some of his minions came and retrieved them before anyone else did. However, the most logical reason for the disappearance of the remains is that the animators of the movie simply forgot to draw them in before fully animating the scene. *He is one of the only three main villains outside of Equestria Girls films to not be imprisoned a thousand years ago, other two being Queen Chrysalis and Starlight Glimmer. *In the French version and other languages, it's called Storm, but in the English/American version, it's a nameless character. *He is one of the only two villains in the Friendship is Magic series to die, the other being King Sombra. *Although he has his comedic tendencies, the Storm King is one of the most evil villains in the Friendship is Magic series, as he conquered and destroyed many lands without remorse, and cares for nobody but himself. *He is the second villain to turn into a statue after Discord. Unlike Discord, however, the Storm King shattered the second after his transformation. *The Storm King is the second villain to steal the Alicorn magic, the first being Tirek. *In interviews with Lionsgate, Schreiber commented that he approached his portrayal of the Storm King like an actor would do with a live-action character, exploring and improvising on his role. *The outcome of what would happen if the Storm King’s stoned-self was put back together like a puzzle, along with what happened to his spirit or his soul is currently unknown. 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